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Monday, March 17, 2008

SPD Sticking To Its Guns On Officer Discipline

posted by on March 17 at 14:59 PM

The Seattle Police Department is (surprisingly) standing by the Office of Professional Accountability on officer discipline. SPD has asked for a Superior Court judge to review a determination by a city disciplinary panel, which reduced Seattle Police Officer Richard Roberson’s suspension from 30 days to only 10.

Roberson was suspended without pay after an Office of Professional Accountability investigation found he had destroyed evidence from a 2005 incident at the Seattle Public Library, where he cited a man for trespassing, but did not arrest him for possession of cocaine and a crack pipe. Roberson destroyed the drugs, but did not reference them in his report.

Roberson appealed his punishment to the City’s Civil Service Commission—a three member quasi-judicial panel appointed by the Mayor and City Council to hear disciplinary appeals—who agreed SPD was too harsh and reduced his suspension. SPD has caught plenty of heat for not disciplining officers, but it appears SPD believes the suspension was warranted and wants a judge to have the final word.

RSS icon Comments

1

its easy to see why this happened.
The officer did the citizen a favor by not charging him for the drug offense. The citizen got a pass and avoided having a drug conviction in the pointless war on drugs.
the review panel sided with the citizens here and reduced the officer's suspension because he did a good deed for the people, rather than the authoritative government.

The administration of the SPD didnt agree with that and don't want to encourage such citizen focused "softness" and would rather see a harsher punishment.
If they dont oppose this then that might show the ridiculousness of the war on drugs.

Posted by Joshalot | March 17, 2008 3:17 PM
2

We could make it simpler for the SPD, just as we did over them wasting tax dollars on MJ enforcement.

We could have a citizen's initiative that requires that all future contracts and renewals for police services have OPD requirements for openness.

Wouldn't take long to get the signatures.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 17, 2008 3:29 PM

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